Monthly Archives: February 2012

MT057C4 Manfrotto Tripod Test

I was loaned a MT057C4 by our area Manfrotto / Gitzo rep and took it out on two seperate occasions. Once with a 800mm telephoto and the last time with a 600mm VR lens (both Nikon systems).

It is a massive 6′ tall tripod with center column thta extends beyone this height.
Even fully extended there is zero torsion with the D3 & 800mm super tele lens on a Wimberley head. I could not claim this on any other Manfrotto or Gitzo tripod I own or tested.

This is an extremely lightweight tripod (7.7lbs) for tis massive size that would replace all others I use for telephotos on the 35mm platform and all my 4×5 to 8×10 large format equipment.

Of course tere is no need for such a beast for use on wide angle landscape shots with the dSLR, but for all other occasions I must highly recommend this carbon-fibre tripod.

Hey Ricky

Sorry Melissa Manchester, I am not referring to your song!

Santorum said on Saturday that Obama’s agenda is tied to “some phony theology” not based on the Bible.
Wouldn’t it be great to govern more firmly based on the bible. What other country governs much stricter based on the (I mean their) bible….. IRAN.

Let’s see what other countries adhere to the bible for their governing?

Photoshop sneak previews

Looks like the Adobe guys are sending hints of what will most liekly be in the forthcoming release of Photoshop CS 6.

With the increased activity of these these posts, my money is on an April / May release date.

Then, if the Lightroom sliders in Beta 4 are any indication, the new ACR will be even better than it alrady is!

John Nack on Adobe : Photoshop.next sneak #3: Dashed & dotted lines.

Ron Paul is nuts

Dr. Paul wants the US back on the gold standard.
Okay, let’s see what that will do for us:

Major gold producers are:
China – 15%
South Africa – 10%
Australia – 10%
US – 10%
Peru – 10%
Russia – 7%
Canada
Mali
Uzbekistan
Ghana

We see China and Russia ganging up against the rest of the “free” world on the Syria issue.
Okay, it really doesn’t affect us thousands of miles away, does it? So, no one here really cares about it, or in most cases, knows about it.

Different scenario, same Sino-Russian bond. For the fun of it they dump tons or gold reserves on the market and with that THEY sink the Dollar to previously unknown levels. Nothing we can do about it. All the gold in Fort Knox is less than ten percent of the world’s annual supply. Within weeks, we will be worse off than we were during the great depression. Remember we are tied to the price of gold and there is nothing we can do to get out of that spiraling trap.

Or, on the other hand one of the corrupt tiny producing nations decides to hoard its gold, and one or two other producers follow suit. Then what? Well, the dollar would gain so much value that we are back in the biggest economic bubble and no one can buy anthing American.

Wait, there’s more…. Private companies have most of the mining rights and get most of the profits. So, now we can actually have one or two mega conglomerates manage our economy at will.

Do you really want to give up any and all decision-making powers? At least we can vote out the bums if it gets really bad.

All we can do with a sovereign nation is sit idly by or turn them into glass. In either case, not really desirable.

Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea some 100+ years ago when gold was mined in colonies of a few western nations where control was concentrated with a few elites. These are no longer colonies, and the power is no longer centralized with a few elites; now there is power of the masses to worry about!

Nixon did the right thing for the USA, albeit much later than most other countries had learned their lesson. Let’s leave this as part of history. Please.

NIKON NIKKOR MF 800mm f/5.6s ED-IF

An oldie, but a great lens.

I recently bought a MF 800mm f/5.6s ED-IF lens for my Nikons. (D3, D300s, and still on order but not yet in hand D4 and D800e) and was able to give it a tremendous workout last week.

I stand corrected; it gave me a great workout last week! Carrying this as carry-on through several airport terminals and on long hikes is a workout indeed!

This is certainly an old lens without any of today’s incredible automated features. But experience in the field had taught me one thing. I never used VR and hardly ever depended on autofocus at extreme distances due to air turbulence.

Results: I highly recommend you go out and find one of these monsters for your collection of GREAT camera gear.
At relatively low cost you can create some magic out there.

The lens is extremely sharp, even wide open. With high ISO capabilities of today’s digital cameras, I recommend you ratchet up the ISO and stop down to f/8 or even f/11 if light conditions allow if only to give you that much more depth of field and some leeway in your hyper focal depth.

One advantage of having a totally manual lens is the weight advantage over its modern younger sibling.
Here are some images. All shot in aperture mode at 1/1,000 – all you need to do is program the lens minimum f/stop in your menu and assign it a number. ISO-800 or ISO-1200.

Will I give up my quest for the 600mm VR lens at a good deal? NO, not yet! But at less than 1/3 the price this is a tremendous tool in the kit.

Here is a link to some detailed information about the 800mm lenses.

As soon as the D800e and D4 are in my fat hands, I will give this lens a spin on those bodies as well.

The Everglades and Wakodahatchee

It was a glorious weekend in the Everglades.
Ealry AM departure from the hotel assured a good spot for sunrise bird flights and nest building.

The 800mm f/5.6 and 300mm f/2.8 proved to be perfect lenses for this trip.

Einstein Bagels Scammers

Eistein has really pissed me off.

They seem to not care about customer satisfaction; don’t care to reply to a letter sent to custoemr support.

When you order a bagel and request extra creamcheese and have to pay over $6 for this you would expect creamcheese on there, wouldn’t you?

Well, photo one is from their location on Belline Road in Addison, Texas where you pay $6 for a bagel and coffee.

Photo two is for the same bagel at $4 or so at another location. They actally have an option that adds “extra shmear” to the order without additional carge.

Why in the world do they not have standards?
Why does one store manager not give a damn when you show them the difference?
Bet you anything she get bonuses based on usage of product versus sales!

Never again. Thankfully there are many other places that sell a bagel.